Hello, Hogwarts!
by Sai du Chickens
Summary: When Jessi gets a strange letter in the mail...it's Super Special time! A Harry Potter crossover.
1. Prologue

**Author's Notes: For Harry Potter nitpickers, this is essentially a third year AU. But who cares, this is for making fun of the BSC!**

**This story would not exist without LionessBlack, who renewed my interest in the BSC after fifteen years.**

**

* * *

**

Jessi

Well, they say that good things come in threes. And this has definitely been a week with three good things.

The first good things was that I got promoted in my ballet class. Mme. Noelle finally decided I was good enough to join the advanced class. It's so exciting! I'm going to have to work extra hard to keep up, though. Plus I'm afraid some of the girls there might be prejudiced against me, because I'm black, but we'll see.

The second good thing happened two days later. Aunt Cecelia is moving out! She's getting an apartment with her special friend Gladys. For some reason Daddy can't stop laughing about it, but I guess he's just happy too. I do wish he'd stop referring to our house as a "closet", though. We have a really nice house, no matter what Aunt Cecelia ever said about it.

The third good thing happened when I got home from school today. It was the freshest thing ever...

"Jessi!"

"Hi, Mama. What's going on?" I walked up the sidewalk to the porch, where Mama was waving a letter around.

"Look at what came in the mail for you today! It looks exciting!" Mama pressed the letter into my hand. The envelope was in a sort of thick, crinkly paper, and had my name and address written in a funny green ink. I tore it open to read what was inside...

_Dear Miss Ramsey,_

_I am pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Enclosed you will find a list of school supplies that you should obtain upon your start here at school. Accommodations for your travel will be made. An owl will be arriving with further instructions. I look forward to seeing you at start of term._

_Sincerely,_

_Albus Dumbledore_

_Headmaster_

I looked at Mama with wide eyes. "What is this?"

"It looks like you got into a special school." Mama squinted at me. "Are you a witch, Jessi?"

I laughed. "Not that I know of."

"Well, somebody certainly thinks you are!"

Later that day, an actual _owl_ showed up with all kinds of information for me. It turns out that Hogwarts is way over in England, where I've never been. I'll get to take some magical wizard transport over there, which is completely distant.

The owl arrived just before the Baby-Sitters' Club meeting, so I was able to share my great news with everyone! Though of course I called Mallory Pike first. She's my best friend, which is really cool, because she's white and I'm black. She agreed that this was the dibblest thing ever!

But the very best part happened the next day. Kristy Thomas, the president of the Baby-Sitters' Club, called me before school in the morning (you know the news is important then). Her stepfather Watson Brewer is really rich, and whenever somebody in the club gets to take a trip somewhere, he pulls out his gobs of money and pays for everyone else to go. This was no exception. The whole BSC was coming to Hogwarts with me! This will be the sixth grade year of a lifetime!


	2. Claudia

_Deer Jneen,_

_Yuo wud nat buleev tteh dey iv hadd! Wee rod oan a majik buss nad it whent undarwatear! it waz rily crassy! wel wee ar saf in Inglunt naw._

_Iel rite mor sun!_

_Claudia_

Wow.

I mean, really, wow.

Jessi had gotten a letter (sent by an owl, isn't that fresh?) telling her that we needed to wait on an abandoned road outside Stoneybrook to catch our ride to Hogwarts. It was kind of weird, but we went with it. This was a school, so everything should be fine, right?

The whole BSC was coming along--besides Jessi and me, of course, Kristy, Mary Anne, Dawn, Mallory, Stacey, and Abby were coming. My mom said when we were leaving that we should be thankful that Mrs. Brewer was a gold-digger, which I thought was silly. Mrs. Brewer works in an office, and there are no gold mines in Stoneybrook.

I had dressed in one of my more spectacular outfits for the occasion. I wore a dark purple sweatshirt that went down to my knees, which I had decorated with yellow and orange puff paint stars. Under that, I had a long black hoop skirt that I had made myself out of an old hula hoop. I didn't have a proper witch's hat, so instead I went to Dellamar's, the huge ice cream store in Washington Mall, and got the biggest ice cream cone they had. After I ate the ice cream, I painted the cone black and wore it on my head. To top it all off, I'd painted my face green. I thought I looked perfect to go to a school for witches and wizards.

"So what do you know about this place, Jessi?" I asked. "Do they have a good art program?"

Jessi opened her mouth to speak, but Mary Anne cut her off. "Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago by four powerful witches and wizards. They wanted to make a center for magical learning where young people could be educated in the ways of magic."

"What's that book you're carrying, Mary Anne?" Kristy asked. Instead of her usual armful of pamphlets and guidebooks, Mary Anne only had a single fat book sitting on top of her suitcase.

"Hogwarts, A History," Mary Anne replied. "It's very--"

Thankfully, Mary Anne was cut off by a loud bang and a cloud of smoke. Out of nowhere, a giant purple bus had appeared! I was excited--we were seeing real magic already!

A guy who had some serious need of some skin cream leaned out of the bus. "New witch from Stoneybrook, right?" he asked. I couldn't believe his accent!

"Yes, that's me," Jessi said. "And everyone else here is coming, too."

The guy gave us a suspicious look. "Awright, lotsa witches from Stoneybrook this year. Come on, welcome to the Knight Bus. I'm Stan Shunpike." He started helping us with our luggage.

"Wait a minute," I said. "I'm pretty sure England is across an ocean, right? By California? How is a bus going to get us there?"

Stan gave me a dirty look for some reason. "It's magic," he muttered. I thought that was pretty rude, but he was loading up my twelfth suitcase, which I remembered was the heavy one.

We climbed aboard the bus, which was the strangest bus I'd ever seen. It had beds instead of seats! We were the only ones on the bus, which I guess made sense. There probably aren't too many people riding a bus from Stoneybrook to England.

Stan finished loading my bags (he'd finished with everyone else's about ten minutes before) and got back in the bus. "To Diagon Alley, then?" he asked Jessi. Jessi nodded. "All right, then. Ernie!" An old man in the driver's seat who had been sleeping sat up straight. He kicked the bus into gear and we were off.

We zipped across the abandoned road while we got comfy. The beds made it feel like a big slumber party on wheels, and even Mary Anne put down her enormous book for a bit. We all talked and giggled and wondered about the boys at Hogwarts, except for Stacey, who was talking to Stan about Clearasil.

The bus hit a bump in the road, and my ice cream cone hat fell off. I reached for it just in time to see the ocean rushing towards us! I screamed in terror (unfortunately Stan was standing right beside me). But the bus swooped down into the water like some kind of submarine, and the next thing we knew, we were driving across the ocean floor.

It took us about three hours to cross the ocean, and even though it was totally dibble, I was really happy to see land again. Plus I was hungry and I'd already eaten my hat.

"Look!" Mary Anne cried. "It's London!"

Sure enough, there it was. It was a beautiful old city, and I reminded myself to draw some pictures before we left. The Knight Bus pulled up in front of a seedy-looking little bar. "The Leaky Cauldron," Stan said. He sighed deeply. "Can I help you ladies with your bags?"


	3. Dawn

_Dear Sunny,_

_London is horrible. It rains constantly, and the pollution is unbelievable. Plus, you wouldn't believe what these wizards do to animals!_

_Wish I was there,_

_Dawn_

"This is it?" I said. We were standing on a dirty sidewalk outside of an equally dirty-looking bar, and it was dumping rain.

"Yes," Mallory breathed. "Isn't it beautiful? I want to find a horse-drawn carriage, just like in Black Beauty."

"No," I said. "It's not beautiful. This place is kind of a dump. And there aren't any horse-drawn carriages anymore."

"There aren't?" Mallory's face fell.

"We're actually in a very historic district of London," Mary Anne said as we picked up our bags. "This road leads to the Via Ductus, which was built by the Romans. In 1622, a fire broke out in--"

"Check this place out!" Abby hollered from inside the bar. I followed, hoping that there was some redeeming quality inside.

Of course, there wasn't. The inside of the bar was filled with even more dirt and grime, if that was possible, and there were all sorts of disgusting people sitting around. I shouldn't say they were disgusting--more like deformed. Abby, Claudia, and Stacey were oohing and ahhing over some stupid flat TV screen that was made up to look like a newspaper.

"Is this a wizard bar?" I asked Stan, who was still carrying Claudia's bags in and trying to convince Mallory that there weren't any horse-drawn carriages in London.

He nodded. "'Cept call it a pub, you're in Britain now."

While I definitely could have chalked the hideous deformities of these people up to simply breathing the air in London, none of the people I'd seen on the sidewalks outside had looked like this. It must be the magic. I wondered if the magic itself was unhealthy, or perhaps these people had just made some horrible mistakes.

"Dawn, quit staring at the hags," Jessi said, bringing me back to reality (unfortunately). "It's rude."

"When did you become such an expert?" I retorted.

"I'm not. I just think it's rude. Like how people stare at me, because I'm black."

"I see your point," I conceded. "But be careful with magic, so you don't end up looking like that. Isn't there organic magic?"

Jessi just rolled her eyes and went on talking to a girl I hadn't noticed. She had long, wavy hair and looked about seventeen, and she wore a plain black robe.

"Who's that?" I whispered to Mary Anne, who had probably been paying attention.

"That's Penelope Clearwater. She's a prefect at Hogwarts, and she's here to meet Jessi and get her settled. We'll be staying here tonight, and leaving for Hogwarts in the morning," Mary Anne whispered back. I wondered what a prefect was, but I knew better to ask Mary Anne. I'd probably get an earful of the Great Prefect Fire of 1781.

Penelope turned towards the rest of us and clapped her hands. "Attention, everyone. Stan and Tom are getting your bags up to your rooms. I'm taking you all out to Diagon Alley, where you can get a feel for the wizarding world, and Jessi can buy her school supplies." She turned to the back wall of the bar--excuse me, pub--and tapped on the brick with what appeared to be a wand. The wall opened up some sort of hidden door that led out to a wide street full of people and shops.

"Wow," Mallory said. "I bet there are horse-drawn carriages here!"

"No, Mallory," I snapped. "All the horses in England are dead. They died of pollution and hags. Now shut up."

I left Mallory in a crying heap (fortunately, Mary Anne stayed behind to comfort her) and strode out into Diagon Alley. And would you believe what the first thing I saw was? Eyelops Owl Emporium. It was a horrible building filled with sad, cooped-up owls. I marched through the door and up to the man minding the counter.

"Now see here!" I yelled. "This is completely inhumane! Has PETA heard about this place?"

The man regarded me calmly. "They're messenger owls. They deliver letters. You must be a Muggle, or a first-year."

"Quit calling me names!" I screamed. "You keep these magnificent animals trapped in here, and then force them to work for you? This is awful!"

I probably would have yelled at the man until he saw my way, or maybe I would have gone on a hunger strike in the middle of the store, but Kristy grabbed my arm. "Dawn, leave the guy alone," she said. "Come on. There's better things to see right now."

"Better than ending cruelty to animals?" I muttered, but I let her lead me out of the shop. I could free the owls another day. There were definitely more important things to do right now, like convince people to switch to organic magic. Of course, I wasn't sure if that existed, but there are organic alternatives to everything, right?


	4. Mallory

_Dear Vanessa,_

_Wow, I really wish you were here. I bet you could get lots of poems out of London! Today we went looking for school supplies for Jessi. The wizarding world sure is weird..._

_Love,_

_Mallory_

"Look at these!" I pressed my face up against the glass to look at the beautiful little red birds. "But why are they all wearing muzzles?"

"Here's why." Jessi tapped the label on the side of the glass. Apparently the song of these birds would kill the listener immediately. Probably not a good gift for Claire, then.

We had spent the whole day in Diagon Alley. Jessi had gotten schoolbooks, some scary-looking potion supplies, some long black robes, and a disappointingly plain wand from a weird little old man. And...at least Jessi and I had fun. We had run into Mary Anne at the pet store, where she told us that Claudia refused to come out of a place called Fortescue's and Kristy and Abby were learning about the British monetary system. (I've read enough to know that quid dutch must be what it's called when British people each pay for their own part of the date.) We had left Dawn and Stacey at the robe shop, where Dawn was trying to convince Madame Malkin that undyed hemp robes would be better for the environment than the heavy dyed robes and Stacey was going through some gold spangled dress robes and wondering how they would go over in New York.

"What about those crabs?" I asked Jessi, pointing at a tank of beautiful jeweled crabs. "Do you think the triplets would like those?"

One of the crabs spouted a giant gout of flame. Jessi nodded. "Oh, yeah, the triplets would love those."

"Yeah, you're right. My parents probably wouldn't." I looked over at Mary Anne, who appeared to be debating whether or not to pet a slinky black cat that was perched on the counter.

"Mary Anne!" I yelled.

"What?"

"It's not cheating on Tigger if you pet another cat."

She paused. "Are you sure?"

"Yep. I promise."

"Okay!" She started petting the cat, but kept glancing suspiciously all around the store.

"Maybe Margo and Claire would like one of these." Jessi tapped on a cage of very furry chipmunks. I poked a finger through the bars, and all the chipmunks suddenly grew huge horrible fangs.

"Oh well. Maybe a magical pet wouldn't go over so well in my family, anyway." I turned away from the chipmunks...

...and fell in love.

The most gorgeous, most hunkified boy I'd ever see had just walked into the pet shop. He had light blonde hair, almost silver, and pale gray eyes. He was an an older man, most definitely--he had to be at least twelve, maybe thirteen. It was all I could do not to stare with my mouth hanging open as he strolled around the pet shop, accompanied by two other (definitely not cute) boys.

"Hmm," my future husband said. "What do you think about getting a pet this year?"

One of the other boys squinted at a large cage of vampire bats. "What about one of these?"

The gorgeous boy sniffed. "What would I do with one of those? Maybe I can ask Father to get me a dragon."

"I don't think that would be a good idea at your house," the other gross boy said. "It'd eat your horses or something."

I didn't even pay attention to the rest of what the boys said. Not only had I found the most gorgeous boy in the world, but he had horses! And maybe he was getting a dragon! He must be very rich, I concluded. That's why he had the last living horses in England. I felt very proud of myself for realizing this, and wondered if I should get a notebook like Harriet the Spy.

"Mal. Mal?" Jessi was elbowing me in the side, which brought me back down to earth from my wild fantasies of going on dangerous notebook spying missions with Gorgeous Boy. "C'mon. We're going to round everyone up and head back to the Leaky Cauldron for dinner. We've got to be up in the morning so we can catch the train, and we'll have to be up pretty early for Claudia to get packed."

"Okay," I said vaguely. Jessi gave me a weird look, but I didn't care. This was tru luv!


End file.
